Page 194 of On His Team

She kisses me again. “That’s for using the middle.”

I laugh against her mouth. “Anything else?”

“Yes.”

She kisses me a third time, slower this time. “That’s because I like you.”

That one gets me more than the others.

I look at her for a second, and she immediately notices.

“What?”

“Nothing.”

“Don’t get quiet.”

“I’m not.”

“You are.”

I shift her a little higher in my arms. “You had a good day.”

“So did you.”

“Yeah.”

Her hand comes up to my face, fingertips moving over my cheek like she isn’t thinking about doing it. For a moment, neither of us says anything. The house is still loud behind us, but from out here it feels distant.

Gianna glances back toward the kitchen windows. “Today felt weird.”

“How?”

She thinks about it before answering. “Good weird.”

“Okay.”

“Yeah.” Her thumb brushes once over my cheek. “I did my thing. You did your thing. And then somehow we both ended up back here.”

I understand what she means.

Her whole morning happened in the same building where I played tonight, but they were completely different worlds. She spent hours running something she built from scratch. I spent the night trying to help us claw another game out of February.

She stood at the boards this morning watching forty-eight kids skate because she made it happen. Tonight, I stood on the blue line and finally did the thing I’ve been trying to fix for two months. Now she’s in my arms in the backyard. It does feel connected somehow.

“Kind of feels like we won,” I say.

Gianna smiles. “Yeah.”

She kisses me again, slower than before, then rests her forehead against mine.

“We should go inside before my ass freezes.”

“Probably.”

“You can put me down.”

I don’t.